Out-of-home advertising products group oOh!media will again not pay a dividend, despite an improvement in its financial performance in the half year to June 30.
The company reported a 22% jump in revenue to $251.6 million, but has still reported a loss for the half year.
While the “strong uplift” in revenue led to a 321% rise in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) to $33.3 million, oOh!media took $33.1 million in depreciation and amortisation charges, leading to an $3.9 million loss after tax.
So no dividend again – meaning there’s been nothing now for 17 months – since April 2020, at the start of the first wave of the pandemic.
With travel in its various forms still disrupted by lockdowns and the reluctance of companies and their staff to return to office life (and commutes down major highways and byways), the ability of the company to make money from its outdoor screens and billboards has been limited.
“While COVID-19 and associated periodic lockdowns continue to cause near term uncertainty, the Group remains in a very strong position to leverage audience and revenue recovery as external conditions improve with increased vaccination rates reducing the ongoing uncertainty of lockdowns,″ the company told shareholders in the ASX release
“Revenue has recovered quickly when lockdowns end reflecting the strong advertising demand.”
While revenue aimed at commuters, car traffic, and retail traffic rose in the six months to June 2021 compared to the same period in 2020 (when it plunged), revenue from airport advertising was down 56% to $8 million.
“The group’s airport assets are weighted more towards domestic travel, which can be expected to recover more quickly than international travel when COVID-19 air travel restrictions are lifted,” the company noted.
oOh! confirmed it had started the sale process for Junkee Media and its carrying value will not be “material”, meaning it will get little in the way of a profit from any sale.
Revenue from Junkee and Cactus Imaging was up 9% to $8.3 million.
Since balance date at the end of June, the company said it had partially terminated a derivative instrument it was using to hedge interest rates until October 2025 at a cost of $2.4 million.
oOh!’s results were different to those from Seven West Media and Southern Cross which saw ad revenues rise and with the help of JobKeeper and deep cost cuts, returned to profits.
The shares fell 4.6% to $1.445
